Frangible fasteners are commonly used in unmanned aircraft or air vehicles to secure various components (e.g., fuselage, wings, winglets, empennage, etc.) of the aircraft together. Frangible fasteners can help minimize damage to the aircraft during landing or other high-impact operations. For example, many conventional unmanned aircraft include wings connected to the fuselage with frangible (e.g., plastic) screws. If the aircraft crashes or is subjected to a high-impact load, the plastic screws break, thereby allowing the wings to completely separate from the fuselage. This arrangement often results in less damage to the wings and fuselage as compared to configurations in which the wings are rigidly connected to the fuselage.
One concern with this arrangement, however, is that in many cases it may be undesirable to allow many of the relatively expensive, delicate components of the aircraft to break free from the aircraft during operation. These components can be seriously damaged and/or destroyed after detachment from the aircraft. Another concern with this arrangement is that when such components break completely free from the aircraft, the electrical connections or other system connections between the aircraft and the respective component are completely broken. Repairing these connections can be extremely expensive and time-consuming.